Throwing Coal on the Fire
by EchoezOfSilence
Summary: Note to self: pay attention when planeswalking.  Otherwise you end up like me, floating in space waiting to fall into some planet's gravity well.  Then again, there's always the off chance that someone might actually find you.
1. Empty

**A/N: Okay guys, this is an idea that just sort of popped into my head a few days back, woke up this morning and decided to get it down on 'paper' so to speak. Thought I'd throw it up on here to see what you think. Enjoy the first chapter!**

**Space is Fucking Empty**

You wanna know something about space?

It's really. Fucking. EMPTY.

Now that might seem quite obvious to some of you sitting at home, but it becomes quite apparent when you've been floating around in the void for days on end. Like I have.

According to my internal clock, which could be way off for all I know, I've been floating around in the empty void of space for something around two weeks. And it's maddening. I've had way too much time to sit and think. And due to the nature of what I am, I can't exactly just wait until I run out of air. 'Cus that happened in about the first 30 seconds I was here. No, the best I can hope for is to either get pulled into the gravity well of some planet or something, or wait for the incredibly unlikely possibility of a spaceship cruising by and noticing me.

Now, you're probably wondering what the fuck I'm talking about. Why am I thinking about this when I'm floating in god knows where? Hell, how am I even alive in space?

Well, my name is Coal Nalaar, and I'm a Planeswalker.

Of course, that probably doesn't help too much. A planeswalker is someone who can travel between, well, alternate universes basically. I can traverse dimensions. Been able to for something like 5 years. Guess I'm still getting the hang of it considering what happened.

Now, before you ask, yes I am related to Chandra. She's my sister, sort of. I'm originally from earth, my spark ignited around 2010 by that calendar. It was a car crash, woke up in the morgue about a day afterwards with fire flowing around me. Yea, I'm a fire mage, like Chandra. Now, we aren't exactly siblings in the original sense. When I first started Planeswalking I found Chandra in that Village on Regatha, where she was learning about her powers or whatever. I had no idea who she was at the time, but we look eerily similar. Now that's weird enough for two people of different genders, but having the same family name? That was just too freaky.

She almost killed me the first time I told her that. She's crazy emotional, but I can't really talk. We concluded that we're pretty much the same person, I'm just what she would have been like in another dimension. But for now it's easier to just think of her as a twin. Planeswalking just gets way too complicated sometimes.

So anyway, it's been about 5 years since my ascension back on Earth. Well, 5 years by my clock. When you're a planeswalker, it matters whose clock you go by. In total, I've really traversed something like 1500 years since my ascension. I left my original place and time long ago. But now I'm stuck here, don't even know what plane I'm on, but it's huge. And fucking empty.

Before this I was On Regatha, I had been looking for Chandra. I hadn't seen her in a few years and wanted to check in. Of course by that time she was gone, and I got caught up in the fighting that was ravaging the plane. I ended up in a duel with a blue mage, not the best person for me to go against. He had whittled me down quite a bit and was preventing me from casting any spells. I eventually had to resort to Planeswalking to escape. Of course, without a clear destination in mind, I ended up in the middle of nowhere. Also known as here.

And god damn, this place is boring.

Now I'm sure you're all asking why I don't just Planeswalk out of here, but it's not that simple. A lesser known fact about Planeswalking is that you need a point of reference. You have to know where you are in order to get somewhere else. And it's kind of hard to have a point of reference when you don't even know which way is up.

So you see my dilemma.

Wait, what's that? In the distance…

Finally I see a change in the vast darkness of space. Something moving, blotting out certain stars as it moves between them and me. My hopes soar as I see the glow of engines, now just to get them to notice me.

I begin to draw on my mana and slowly increase my heat signature. I could create fire if I wanted to, but it takes a lot more energy, considering there's no fuel for it in space. Speaking of which, I'm gonna get some odd questions when they find out I don't have any breathing equipment. Ah, oh well, I'll deal with that when I get to it.

Finally, the ship seems to notice me, and begins to turn in my direction. As it moves closer, I'm able to make out some more details about it. It's a sleek, aerodynamic design with a white and black paint job. The engines glowed bright blue, and I was just able to make out a name stenciled on the side of the ship.

Normandy.

**A/N: There it is! The first chapter of Throwing Coal on the Fire. Hope you enjoyed it! And don't forget to Review!**


	2. Drifters

**A/N: Chapter 2! I'm on a roll, don't get used to 2 chapters in as many days though. I'm not usually this fast with my stories, but I've just got some major inspiration for this one I guess. I'll try to keep the updates at least reasonably often, but I might end up slacking off with it. Anyway, I'd like to thank the one person who reviewed my last chapter, and without further ado, enjoy chapter 2.**

**Picking up Drifters**

Commander Shepard groaned as a small device next to her bed let out a loud beep. A light flashed on the small communication device that the sound had come from. The noise suddenly repeated with a much louder shriek and Shepard's eyes snapped open. She shot up and untangled herself from the sheets as quickly as she could. Reaching over, she hit a large button on the side of the communication device.

"What's up Joker?" She said, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.

"Uh, Commander, we've got something on the sensors. You should probably come take a look." Came the reply of the SSV Normandy's pilot, Jeff "Joker" Moreau.

Shepard glanced out the viewport in her cabin, they weren't even near any major systems. What the hell would they be picking up way out here? She shook her head and hit the button again.

"Alright, I'll be down in a minute."

With that she shut off the communicator and got fully out of her bed. She sighed as she looked down at herself, she had fallen asleep in her uniform again. Quickly walking to her closet, she got out a new set of the exact same clothes and put them on.

They were currently en route to some backwater planet in the Terminus Systems, she couldn't remember the name of it. But there had been reports of Geth activity in the area, and so she had taken the _Normandy_ out to investigate. It wasn't like they had much else to do right now. The crew had just recently left the Citadel and didn't have any real leads on the Reapers yet. And so they were stuck chasing down pockets of Geth.

Shepard rubbed her eyes vigorously as she made her way out of her quarters and into the elevator. She didn't particularly like being woken up during her sleep cycle, but if joker had used her emergency communicator then it must be something important. Hopefully it wouldn't be something that would shoot at them, they had run in to enough of that in the past few months.

When the infernally slow elevator finally made it down to the CIC, she quickly stepped out and made her way up the long hallway and into the cockpit. Multitudes of holographic displays and control panels surrounded the pilot's seat that Joker was firmly planted in. Shepard glanced out the viewport searching for any sign of another ship, or anything that could be giving off a signal. After seeing nothing, she turned to Joker with an eyebrow raised.

"What's so important that you had to wake me up for it?"

Joker tapped a few buttons before a new holographic display popped up. By what Shepard could tell, it detailed all heat signatures that the Normandy's sensors could pick up. And there was a huge spike very close to the ship.

"Around 10 minutes ago, the Normandy picked up a small object on its sensors. I passed it off at first as a stray asteroid or some other piece of floating junk, but then it started emitting these massive heat signatures."

Shepard's eyes scrunched up in confusion as she studied the various displays.

"What the hell is it?"

Joker tapped a few more keys and the cockpit lit up as another window opened up and started flooding with information.

"Scanners say... It's roughly the size of a human male, same shape too…" Now it was Jokers eyes that crinkled in confusion. He tapped in more commands, double checking the information that the computer was giving him.

"This can't be right, that things emitting as much heat as a damn frigate!"

As Joker continued to frantically type commands into the computer, Shepard scrutinized the readouts. The computer didn't mess things up like this, did it? She finally put her hand out in front of Joker to stop his frantic typing.

"Bring up a video feed," She said, "Maybe that'll tell us more about what we're looking at."

Joker slowly let out a breath and nodded. He typed a few more commands, a little more calmly this time, and another screen came into existence. This one was solid black, and began to fill with bright white dots as the computer loaded the information coming in from the external cameras. It suddenly zoomed in on a single object floating in the void.

Both Shepard and Joker jerked back in surprise when the video finally came up. It showed an image of a human male, floating in space, completely unharmed. How was this even possible? They were in the middle of nowhere, and there was a single human floating out in the void. And with no gear to boot!

It was a male, looked to be in his mid 20's, and was garbed in something akin to the chainmail worn by the soldiers of ancient Earth. She couldn't make out much else about the man other than his bright red hair. She made a snap decision and turned to Joker.

"I don't know what the hell that's doing out here, but I'm gonna take a team out with thruster packs and bring it in. Be ready to move in case something goes wrong."

Joker simply nodded and continued to stare at the screen in total confusion.

Shepard turned and walked back down the hallway towards the elevator. As she passed the galaxy map, she activated the ship wide intercom.

"Garrus, Kaidan, meet me in the cargo hold in 5. Bring Zero G and breathing gear."

With that done, she stepped into the elevator and patiently waited as it took her down to the cargo hold.

When she finally got down to the cargo hold she quickly grabbed her armor and breathing gear from a locker off to the side. Kaidan and Garrus had made their way down by the time she was finished suiting up. She grabbed a thruster pack for each of them and walked over to the two men. She handed them each a thruster pack and started attaching her own as she explained the situation.

"Ten minutes ago, Joker picked up some massive heat signatures coming from this sector. He called me down and we re-checked the readings, but they were all correct. There's what looks like a human body out there."

Kaidan and Garrus had surprised looks on their faces when she said this. She nodded at them and continued.

"Yea, I don't understand it either, but that's what seems to be giving off these heat signatures. So we're gonna go pick it up, bring it in, and try to figure out what the hell it is. Be prepared for anything, 'cus we have no idea what we're dealing with here."

The two men nodded and readied a pair of assault rifles. The recoil would be a bitch in empty space, but hopefully the thruster packs would help with that.

They group approached the airlock at the end of the cargo bay and Shepard keyed her communicator.

"Joker, we're in position and ready. Pop the hatch."

After hearing an affirmative over the radio, Shepard turned towards the massive bay door and watch as it slowly opened. The mass effect field was keeping the atmosphere inside the hold for now. Shepard nodded to the other two and proceeded to the edge of the hold. She could just make out the shape of the body from here, slowly tumbling end over end.

Shepard Pushed lightly off the floor of the Cargo hold and tapped the button to activate the thrusters. A small burst sent her moving towards the body at a decent speed. No air resistance in space meant that she would keep going until she fired the thrusters again.

As she approached the body, she was able to make out a few more details. It was indeed male, probably mid-twenties, chiseled face. A pair of dark aviator goggles was perched on his forehead, pushing back his bright red hair slightly. His eyes were tightly shut, almost as if in concentration. But Shepard knew that couldn't be right, the man couldn't be alive. With no breathing equipment there was no way he could have survived the vacuum of space, hell it was questionable how his body was intact to begin with.

She raised an eyebrow as she surveyed the rest of the figure. He wore a chainmail shirt over a bare chest, and a brilliant red long sword was in a sheath on his back. A pair of red cargo pants covered his legs and were tucked into… combat boots? This guy certainly had an odd taste in attire.

Tapping the thrusters again, Shepard oriented herself so that she was now facing the ship. She tapped the button a third time to slow her down and she drifted into arms reach of the man. She reached down and grabbed a handful of his chainmail shirt, making sure it wouldn't slide off of him. It was surprisingly sturdy, and stubbornly stayed on the man's torso.

Reassured that it would hold, Shepard attached a tow line to the links of his chain mail. With a quick tap of the thrusters she was sent back towards Kaidan and Garrus, who hadn't come out near as far as she had. The body pulled easily behind her as the thrusters propelled her back towards the Normandy's cargo hold.

Once she was inside, with Garrus and Kaidan right behind her, she radioed Joker again.

"Okay," she said, "We've got him. Go ahead and close the hold."

As the massive bay doors closed once again, Shepard grabbed the body off of the floor where it had fallen when the mass effect field took hold, and dragged it over to a stack of crates. She propped it up against them and started taking off the thruster pack.

Once she got it off, she turned back to examine the body again.

Just in time to come face to face with a pair of blazing red eyes.

**A/N: there you have it! Hope you all enjoyed the second chapter, and remember to hit that little review button on your way out if you don't mind.**


	3. Welcome Aboard

**A/N: Wow, I'm honestly surprised that I've gotten so many chapters out so quickly. But I'm also disappointed with how few reviews I've gotten. Come on guys, this is the only story in this section, give me some credit here! I could also use the feedback, I wasn't to make this story better and I need your help to find out what I need to fix. **

**But enough of my complaining, I managed to pump out a 3****rd**** chapter for you all today and I hope you all enjoy it. I probably won't post a chapter tomorrow, but we'll see. I still need to figure out where I'm going with this…**

**Anyway, enjoy chapter 3 of Throwing Coal on the Fire.**

**Welcome Aboard**

"Holy shit!"

The woman stumbled back from me in surprise. Well, I guess it's a good thing I waited until we were inside to show I was actually alive. I can understand her surprise though, finding a man floating in space with no breathing equipment? I wouldn't expect him to be alive either.

Her outburst drew the attention of the other two people in the room, and suddenly I had several high powered weapons pointed at me. One was wielded by a human male, the other by a being of some other race. I hadn't encountered anything like him before. He looked sort of like a Vulshok, but more reptilian.

Now, I've dealt with guns before. Not all of the planes I visited were primitive, so I had dealt with weapons of all kinds. But these guns weren't exactly what I was used to. They were sleek and powerful looking, a lot like the ship that picked me up.

I lifted my hands into the universal "I mean no harm" gesture, though my right hand was ready to reach for the long sword on my back if it came to that. Granted, a long sword probably wouldn't be very effective against these guns. Let's go for the diplomatic approach first.

"Dónde estoy?"

No response, apart from a raised eyebrow from the woman. I blinked and stared for a second. The last plane I was on was filled with Spanish speakers, so my mind had immediately gone to that. I cleared my throat and tried English.

"Where the fuck am I?"

This got their attention. The woman walked back towards me and crossed her arms, she scrutinized me while the other two continued to point their guns at me. Eventually the woman responded.

"My name is Commander Shepard," she said, "and you're on board the _Normandy_."

She circled around me for a second, her eyes stopping on my sword for a moment.

"But what I wanna know, is how the hell you're alive right now. You have no breathing gear and we just pulled you out of dead space in the middle of nowhere. Care to shed some light on the subject?"

I scratched my head as she stared at me and sighed. I knew this was gonna be complicated…

"It's… a long story, sort of." My voice was gravelly from lack of moisture, and the fact that I hadn't used it in something like 2 weeks.

"Well, we've got time." She said pointedly, giving me another hard stare.

"Um… any chance I could get some water first?" I coughed, my throat was sore from the sudden use. "I've been floating for something like 2 weeks now, and even I need water after that long."

The woman, Shepard was her name, stared at me for another moment before walking over to one of the lockers set in the wall. I glanced at the two others in the room, their guns still pointing at me.

"You mind pointing those somewhere else? I'm not gonna hurt anybody, and I don't really like having guns in my face."

The Vulshok looking guy just growled and took a step closer. I brought my hands up and backed up a step.

"Okay, okay, jeez. You don't trust me, I get it."

By that time, Shepard had come back with a canteen in her hands. She tossed it to me and I gratefully gulped down the entire thing in one go. Ahh, that's the good stuff. Hey, I might be a fire mage, but I still need my good old H2O.

I sat down on one of the many crates in the hold and prepared myself for the tale of my existence.

"Ok. In short terms, I'm a planeswalker."

"And what the fuck is a planeswalker?" The Vulshok look-a-like growled at me.

"Well, that's the far-fetched part." I took a deep breath, I could already tell they weren't going to believe me. "Planeswalkers are beings who can travel between different planes of existence." Shepard's raised eyebrow prompted me to continue.

"Um… I'm guessing you have heard of the theory of parallel universes, correct?" Shepard gave a quick nod. "Well think of it this way then, I can basically travel between universes. Don't ask me how, 'cus I have no idea."

Shepard didn't believe me. It was obvious in her posture. She had tensed when I mentioned that, keeping the surprise from showing on her face. But now her eyes narrowed in suspicion. The Vulshok guy interrupted before she could say anything.

"Bullshit." He growled, his mandibles clicking slightly. "There's no way that's even possible. And even if it was, it doesn't explain how the hell you survived in space without equipment."

I sighed again and held my head in my hands for a moment.

"I told you it was far-fetched. Whether you want to believe me or not is your choice, but I think the fact that I'm here is proof enough." I paused before answering the other part of his accusation. It wouldn't be very smart to reveal my immortality to someone shoving a gun in my face, but it didn't look like I had much choice.

"As for how I survived out there… Planeswalkers are, well, special. In the sense that I don't really have to breath, and I can survive in a vacuum for an indefinite amount of time. It's really fucking boring though."

They still didn't believe me.

"Okay, look, I'm not crazy. I know this shit is hard to believe, I didn't believe it when I ascended either! But how else would I have gotten here AND survived out there until you found me?"

I stared at Shepard with an eyebrow raised for a minute before continuing again.

"Plus I'm the one who was letting out those heat emissions that I'm sure are what got your attention. And would a normal human be able to do something like that?"

Shepard sighed and nodded in resignation.

"Garrus, Kaiden, back off. I believe him, for now."

Mr. Vulshok over there looked a little skeptical, but eventually backed down anyway.

"But listen up, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt for now. But if you pull any tricks or hurt any person on my crew… I swear you will wish you were never born."

I nodded stiffly, her stern glare showed that she meant business. I didn't hurt people that often anyway, usually.

"Now we just have to figure out what we're going to do with you, mister..?"

"Nalaar." I said, "Coal Nalaar."

"Right, Mister Nalaar. If what you're saying is true, then you know almost nothing about this universe correct?"

I nodded.

"Well, we'll have to remedy that now won't we?"

Two hours later, I was sitting in the Mess hall of the _Normandy_ reading through a data-pad. There was a lot of information I didn't know about this universe. The multitude of other sentient races was just the tip of the iceberg.

Currently I was reading up on the huge space station they called The Citadel. According to these specs, it was massive. I doubt even the legendary Urza could have crafted something this large.

I found out what Mr. Vulshok was, a Turian. Not that that meant very much to me, but at least I had something to call him. Also found out his name was Garrus. Shepard had introduced me to most of the crew, and I was a bit surprised at how diverse it was. She hadn't explained the whole planeswalker thing to them though, just told them I was new and passed my attire off as a personality quirk.

I told Shepard Briefly about my combat experience, and she was oddly delighted about it. Turns out these guys get into firefights almost bi-weekly. So I told Shepard I could help out, and she took me up on my offer. She just told me that I'd have to get some weapon training from Chief Williams, which I agreed to. I figure as long as I'm stuck here, I might as well help out.

Now, some of you are probably wondering why I'm not just planeswalking out of here. The answer is that I need to do a few rituals to triangulate my position in relation to the other planes, rituals which take significant time and effort. I also didn't really have anything else to do, so I figured I'd just stay.

Most planeswalkers don't really have homes, they just sort of wander the Multiverse. I was no exception. Plus, Shepard had briefly told me about the reapers, and I'm not really a big fan of giant machines who try and commit genocide.

Dropping the data-pad I just finished, I reached over and grabbed another. This one was on human history, and how they ended up joining the Citadel races. It seemed like just another boring history document, until a name caught my eye. My eyes scrunched up in confusion and I scrolled up to see what section I was reading. It was a section about how they discovered some alien cache of technology on Mars, and there was a list of the people who had been on the mission that discovered it. One name in particular caught my eye.

Chandra Nalaar.

My sister was here.

**A/N: Haha! Cliffy! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and stay tuned for more! Anyone who gives me a review gets a free virtual cookie!**


	4. Finding Chandra

**A/N: Greetings and salutations to all my readers! My apologies for this update taking so long (though previous updates for my other stories have taken significantly longer) but I was caught up in other things. Anyway, I apologize if this chapter sucks, I wrote it this morning and I kinda feel like crap. But hopefully that didn't affect my writing! Anywho, enjoy this next chapter. And please review!**

**Finding Chandra**

"Shepard, I… require your assistance."

Shepard almost jumped out of her seat when she heard the voice behind her; she hadn't even heard the door open! She turned away from her private terminal and looked at who had come to interrupt her musings. She was somewhat taken aback when she saw Coal standing there, the soft blue light from the fish tank turning his attire to an odd purple color.

"You know, you're damn quiet for someone wearing chain mail."

He smirked for a moment, "It comes from years of practice."

"Yes, I'm sure. So, what was it you needed?"

At this, the smirk faded from his face and he began fidgeting with his chain mail. Almost as if he was… nervous? Shepard found this oddly disturbing, as what could make someone like him so nervous?

"I… Was reading through those data-pads you gave me, and I found something. A name, on the crew that found that technology cache on Mars. It seems that my sister is here, in this universe."

Well, that was definitely not what Shepard had been expecting. He hadn't mentioned anything about a sister, and the way he said it made it sound like she was one of these planeswalker people too. After finally overcoming her surprise, she voiced that question.

"You're sister is a planeswalker too? I thought you said it was, like, a one in a billion chance…"

"Well, she's not technically my sister. She's actually from a completely different plane, but we look and act eerily alike. I met her a couple of years ago, and our theory is that we are counterparts from different universes. So, not technically siblings, but it's easier to just think of her as a sister."

"Yea… I can see how that might be easier…" Shepard was still reeling from all this information, she still had hardly gotten over the whole planeswalker thing with Coal! And now there was apparently another one running around in this universe. "Well, do you have any idea where she might be?"

"Other than that she was one of the people on the expedition to Mars more than 30 years ago, I don't really have any idea. But I get the feeling that she's still here. She wouldn't leave with the amount of conflict going on in this universe."

"30 years is a long time Coal, how do you know she's even still alive?"

He shuffled his feet for a moment.

"Well… Planeswalkers are somewhat harder to kill than regular humans, we also don't really age. I have faith that very few people could have gone head to head with her and survived. In all honesty though, I don't really know if she's alive or not. But I'm not leaving this universe until I find out what happened to her."

Shepard nodded for a moment, then turned back to her private terminal.

"I'll contact a friend of mine on the Citadel, he's one of the few people I know who might be able to help you."

Coal nodded and turned to leave, but stopped right before he opened the door.

"Thank you Shepard."

Two days later, the _Normandy_ pulled into a docking cradle on the Citadel. Apparently Shepard's friend had pulled through, and was willing to meet with them to discuss the matter face to face. Several minutes after docking, Shepard, Garrus and I stepped out of the _Normandy_'s airlock. The data-pads I had read did little justice to the station. It was remarkable that such a thing even existed. It was _Massive_.

Surprisingly, C-sec didn't seem to have a problem with me carrying a sword around. They probably assumed I wasn't very good at using it and that I wouldn't be able to do much damage anyway. I did get more than a few odd looks from passerby on our way to the presidium though.

When the elevator finally opened, we walked out onto an open balcony overlooking the presidium gardens. Leaning on the railing was a dark skinned man in a formal naval uniform. He turned to face us when he heard the elevator open, and his eyes lit up a bit when he saw Shepard.

"Shepard! Good to see you again, and so soon too. You mentioned you needed my help with something?"

"Yes, this is Coal," She gestured towards me, "He's a recent addition to my crew and he's looking for a family member that he has lost contact with. I was hoping you might be able to help him out."

The man, whom Shepard had told me was Admiral Anderson, finally turned to look at me. His eyes scrutinized me and a frown of confusion appeared on his face as he surveyed my attire.

"Who, exactly, are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for my sister… Her name is Chandra Nalaar."

As soon as he heard that name, Anderson visibly stiffened. His eyes glared at me in suspicion.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Coal Nalaar, and I can tell by your reaction that you don't believe me. I am well aware that my sister was involved in pivotal events over 30 years ago, but that amount of time is of little consequence to either of us."

At this point Anderson's eyes widened in realization and he gaped at me, then whispered something that I barely heard.

"You're a planeswalker too…"

I nodded, slightly surprised that he had heard of my kind.

"I'm guessing she told you then." He gave a slight nod, still gaping in disbelief, "Well then I hope she trusted you enough to tell you where she might be going? I'm not leaving this plane until I find her."

He finally seemed to reel in his surprise and slowly turned back to the balcony railing. He leaned on it and ran his hand over his face, I thought I heard him say "I'm getting too old for this." After another few moments he responded, not moving away from the railing.

"A few weeks ago she contacted me, said she was heading to the terminus systems. She said something about feeling a 'disturbance' in the fabric of space, I assumed it was a planeswalker thing and didn't put much more thought into it. She took a small frigate and shot off towards the terminus systems. I guess she was looking for you, but it doesn't look like she'll find you out there will she?"

"Shit…" I muttered, "I should have known she would have felt me planeswalk, but it's been almost a week since then, she should have realized that I'm not out there anymore."

At this point we were both leaning on the balcony railing, and so neither of us heard the door open behind us. Shepard and Garrus did, however, and whoever walked in suddenly had two heavily armed soldiers bearing down on them. Then a familiar voice rang out.

"Hey, Anderson! Why the hell do I walk into your office only to have guns pointed at me?"

**A/N: the end! I figure most of you can probably tell who the "familiar voice" is, but for those who can't, you'll find out next chapter! Please review!**


	5. Coincidence?  I Think Not

**A/N: Jesus it's been a while since I last updated this story… sorry about that guys, been caught up with other things and haven't really been thinking about this story. But I finally got over all that writer's block and got enough motivation to write something. Hopefully it'll keep you entertained for a bit. Anywho, enjoy the next chapter of Throwing Coal on the Fire. Also I don't own M:TG or Mass Effect.**

**Coincidence? I think not.**

There's an old human saying from the middle ages, "Speak of the devil and he doth appear."

This saying didn't ring more true than in this situation, for that familiar voice belonged to my sister, Chandra Nalaar.

I turned and stared at her for a few moments, standing indignantly between Shepard and the elevator. She was wearing a sleek set of armor similar to Shepard's, but other than her attire she hadn't changed a bit since I last saw her. She even still had those goggles pushed up on her forehead. Her armor was bright red with a few orange streaks running down the sides, her hair almost blended right into it.

Shepard turned back to look at Anderson and I, but once she saw our expressions she lowered her weapon and motioned for Garrus to do the same.

"Chandra," I spoke after a few moments, "It's been a while."

At the sound of my voice her eyes darted over to me and widened substantially. She stared at me for a few moments, processing the fact that I was there. After a minute she finally opened her mouth and almost spoke too softly to hear.

"Coal? Is that really you?"

"In the flesh," I cracked a smirk and motioned to myself.

Chandra's face cracked into her signature grin and she grabbed me in a rib-cracking hug. After a few seconds of squeezing the life out of me she finally backed away and looked me up and down. Her gaze changed to one of slight confusion after a moment.

"It's been a while, Coal. But what the hell are you doing here?"

I rubbed the back of my head for a moment in embarrassment before responding.

"I, uh… kinda blind-walked. Ended up floating around somewhere out in the terminus systems, I was really lucky that Shepard here was flying by at the time."

"What happened?" Her voice was laced with concern at this point, she knew I wasn't stupid enough to blind-walk without provocation.

"I was on Regatha, looking for you actually, and I ran into a mind mage. You know I've always had trouble with them. The fight got out of hand and I had to Blind-walk to escape. Some coincidence that I ended up on the same plane as you, huh?"

Her face wrinkled in concentration at my last comment and she muttered something that sounded like "Some coincidence, huh."

After a second she grabbed my arm and pulled me over to a corner, away from Anderson and the others, who had by now moved on to speaking about alliance matters. As soon as we were out of earshot, she began hurriedly whispering to me.

"Listen," she said, "I think it may not just be coincidence that brought you here." Her voice was strangely rushed now, as if she was nervous. But what could make her nervous? She was one of the most powerful Fire mages I had ever met.

"I ran into a planeswalker named Garruk no more than two months ago who said that he had blind-walked here. Coal, something's happening on this plane that's attracting planeswalkers, and I have my doubts that it is anything good."

As soon as she said that, we both felt something. A subtle shift in the mana of this plane, a ripple if you will. A wave of energy that only the two of us could feel swept across the plane. Another planeswalker had arrived.

Meanwhile, Admiral Anderson had been discussing reports of Geth activity with Commander Shepard.

"We don't have any confirmed geth sightings," He told her, "But ships have been disappearing all over the terminus systems for months, and I need you to find out why."

Shepard nodded, but then motioned towards the twins whispering in the corner.

"What do you want to do about them?"

Anderson stroked his chin for a moment before replying.

"I think it's best if you take them both with you. If what I saw of Chandra's abilities in the war holds true, they're going to be a powerhouse together. And I have a feeling you're going to need that."

Before Shepard could say any more, the siblings came rushing over to the group and Chandra began speaking with Anderson in hushed tones.

After a few tense moments of hushed conversations, Anderson silenced the planeswalker with a stern glare and turned back to Shepard.

"Chandra will be accompanying you on your investigation, Shepard. I suggest you leave as soon as possible, any more disappearances and people might start blaming the Alliance, and I don't think either of us want it to get that far."

Shepard nodded and gave Anderson one last handshake before turning and walking towards the elevator. Chandra glanced at Anderson one last time, but he simply stared back and motioned towards the elevator. She followed Coal and the others through the door with slight reluctance.

Once the entire group had left, Anderson rubbed his face with his hands and muttered, "I'm getting too old for this…"

**A/N: That's it for the chapter, hope you enjoyed it! And don't forget to review!**


	6. Dueling

**A/N: Ok, It's been a long ass time, and I really don't have much of an excuse for how long it's been. I mostly haven't really had the motivation to write, and that combined with the fact that I was going through my first year of college kinda just made me not get anything done on this or any of my stories :I**

**But now it's summer, and I may or may not get the motivation to write again, hopefully I will, but y'all will know eventually if I don't. My apologies for not keeping up with this story as much as I should be, but I hope y'all enjoy this chapter anyway.**

**Dueling**

A few days later, Chandra and I were cruising around the Terminus systems in the high class luxury of the Normandy.

Note the sarcasm.

Now don't get me wrong, the Normandy is a great ship, at least as far as I can tell with my limited knowledge of spacecraft (Joker still refused to let me touch anything, and I mean ANYTHING), but it's a military vessel, and those are never designed with the comfort of the crew in mind.

So with a lack of things to do, Chandra and I found ourselves sparring in the ship's cargo hold. We had moved some of the larger and sturdier looking crates into various positions around the hold to use as cover, hoping they would hold up to all the fire we'd be throwing around. We had made sure Joker had the Mass Effect field locked down tight around the hold just in case we breached the hull, and then we set about starting our duel.

We stood back to back and counted down from 10, as soon as we hit zero we were on opposite sides of the room, fireballs already screaming through the hold.

Now one of the things you need to understand about fire mages is that we are not, in even the slightest way, subtle. Not even a little. So our duel was drawing quite a lot of attention from the crew. Shepard had mentioned something to them about us practicing in the hold, but we were making a LOT of noise, and of course there was the fact that we were throwing fire around.

So by the time we got ourselves to a stalemate, Chandra had one hand firmly around my neck, and I had my sword up against hers, we had drawn quite a crowd. Almost the entire crew was standing slack-jawed by the entrance to the hold. There were scorch marks all over the hold, some of them even still smoking, but luckily we hadn't really broken anything.

Chandra and I gently backed away from each other and relaxed our stances, we shook hands before turning to the shocked crowd. I gave a little bow as they finally managed to pick their jaws up off the floor.

The big red reptile dude, something called a Krogan I think, was the first one to say anything.

"I have not seen fighting like that on any world I have been to," He said, "You two are truly great warriors."

He gave a little nod of his head and receded back to the upper decks. His comment seemed to shock the crowd a little more though, as Garrus watched with a little awe as the Krogan left.

"I don't think I've _ever_ heard Wrex give anyone a compliment like that, damn." He turned back to us, "He was right though, I've never seen anything like what you two just did."

Kaidan was still staring with his mouth half-open,still unable to believe it, and the gunnery chief was leaning against the wall with an impressive look on her face.

Chandra pulled the goggles off her eyes and I saw an evil glint in her eye as she sauntered over to the still stunned Kaidan. I shook my head and facepalmed at what she was about to do. She went up to him and gave him a light smack on the cheek, snapping him out of his stupor.

"Better close that gob of yours, soldier boy," She said, "You might catch a fly or two."

And then she walked off with a huge grin on her face, leaving a yet again stunned Alenko behind, although he followed a moment later when he came back to his senses. Garrus gave me a quick nod before following everyone else, and I returned it as I removed my own goggles, putting them up on my forehead.

I turned to the last remaining person in the room as she walked up to me, Gunnery Chief Williams was analyzing me in a way that I couldn't tell if she was checking me out or assessing my combat skills, either way she was heavily scrutinizing me. When she finally reached me she looked me in the eye and held her hand out to me.

"Ashley Williams," She said, "I run the armory with Kaidan."

I shook her hand and responded in kind.

"Coal Nalaar," I said, "I'm new in town."

"So I've heard," She moved over and leaned on one of the nearby crates, "That was quite a show though, I didn't know that kinda stuff was possible to be honest. I must say I was a little skeptical when Shepard told me what you said you could do, but I don't doubt it now."

I chuckled a bit.

"Thanks," I responded, "But I'm a little rusty. Floating around in dead space for a couple weeks will do that to you."

She nodded slightly, although I could tell she still didn't quite get how _that_ was possible, but all things in good time. After a minute of thoughtful expressions she stood up from the crate and looked me in the eye again before speaking.

"Well after that display I don't think there's much I really need to teach you two about combat, but if you ever wanna learn how to shoot a gun instead of using that sword and those fireballs, you can find me in the armory."

With that, she gave me a slight wave and headed off for the upper levels with the rest of the crew. Just as she was leaving though, sirens started blaring loudly and the red emergency light flashed on. A second later a massive blast rocked the ship.

Something was horribly wrong.

**A/N: again sorry for not writing as much as I should, but I hope y'all enjoyed this, and don't forget to review!**


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